Knicks links: Pablo Prigioni ready to contribute regularly

Pablo Prigioni made a big difference for the Knicks on Wednesday, and as the season unfolds, he'll likely continue to do so.Maury Tannen/EPA

It was really inevitable.

Pablo Prigioni, the 35-year-old rookie point guard who currently plays behind Knicks
teammates Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton, is suddenly poised to see more playing
time. It may have taken his 11-point, seven-assist, 28-minute performance in a win over the Bucks on Wednesday for that to happen, but it really was inevitable.

At
some point in the season, we all knew the 39-year-old Kidd would have to rest
his aging bones, so when he sat on Wednesday with back spasms, Prigioni was
ready to step in. That's why he wasn't concerned with his lack of playing time
over the first month, which is the advantage of being 35, he said.

But there was
another reason Prigioni was destined crack the Knicks' rotation: Even if he
stayed healthy, Kidd isn't long for the starting lineup.

Eventually Iman
Shumpert and/or Amar'e Stoudemire will return from their respective knee
injuries and reclaim their starting spots. When that happens, the lineup will
shuffle and the odd-man out appears to be Kidd. And since Kidd is no longer
able to defend faster, smaller point guards, he'll likely be paired Prigioni.

As we saw over
the first month, Kidd is very effective playing alongside another point guard,
so why let that go to waste just because Shumpert will be spending more time
alongside the starter Felton?

Plus the players
want Prigioni on the floor and it's not exactly a mystery as to why: Everyone
wants to play with a great passer who rarely shoots.

He currently
ranks fourth in the league in assist rate (percentage of possessions that end
in an assist) and on the rare occasion that Prigioni does shoot, his teammates
have confidence he'll make it.

"You have to understand how crafty he is," center Tyson
Chandler said, as
quoted by Marc Berman of the New York
Post. "Playing against him, we always said he takes and makes big
shots. He doesn't shoot often. But scouting reports playing for the US team, it
was look when it comes down to a shot and it's key, he's going to be the one
who will take it and make it."

In other Knicks news:

• CBSSports.com's
Ken Berger wondered if Carmelo Anthony's suddenly well-rounded game is a
mirage: "What's interesting is that isolation plays, which account for
Anthony's highest percentage of scoring chances (29 percent), are actually his
least efficient way to score. Anthony is shooting 39 percent in isolation and
producing only .857 points per possession -- his lowest production for any play
type that's accounted for at least 20 possessions. Considering he's shooting
.469 overall from the field, his highest since he was 23, isolations are a
significant drag on what otherwise is a strong early case for MVP
consideration."

• The
Post's Phil Mushnick wrote a column in which he yearns for the days of
Jeremy Lin and accuses the current Knicks of playing an unattractive brand of
basketball: "With Lin at the wheel and controlling the accelerator and the
brake, the excitement here — and it had as much to do with how the
Knicks won as it did with just winning — was extraordinary. Remember?... But,
for some reason — good reasons are neither needed nor expected in Jim Dolan's
Garden — Lin was deemed persona non grata. Not just Lin, but the kind of
all-out, layup-creating team ball he inspired then represented."

• Reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler
isn't a complete wash at the other end of the floor, wrote
Nate Taylor of The New York Times:
In the Knicks' last six games, three victories
and three defeats, the 7-foot-1-inch Chandler took 36 shots from the floor and,
remarkably, converted 32 of them, for an .888 shooting percentage... According to
the Elias Sports Bureau, no N.B.A. player over a similar six-game stretch,
taking at least 30 shots over all, has come up with a percentage to match Chandler's
since the league introduced the shot clock for the 1954-55 season."

• The
Toronto Star's Doug Smith wondered if the Knciks and Nets have a true rivalry yet: "The best part of the whole thing might be the bemusement
the whole Knicks-Nets thing is being met with around the league... In Milwaukee earlier
this week, fans chanted 'Brooklyn's better, Brooklyn's better' when the Knicks
were shooting free throws. And since 'New York's better, New York's better' has
the same number of syllables, it could become a league-wide chant against
whichever team is playing."